Parental smoking cessation and children's smoking: Mediation by antismoking actions

Abstract

The present study investigated whether parents' antismoking actions mediated the prospective relationship between parental smoking cessation and children's smoking. Smoking status of parents (predictor) was assessed when their children were in 3rd grade, parental antismoking actions (mediators) were assessed when their children were in 11th grade, and children's smoking status (outcome) was assessed when they were in 12th grade. In 20 Washington state school districts, data were collected from 1,600 children (49% female, 91% White) and from their parents. Results showed that children's odds of daily smoking were reduced by 39% (95% CI = 24%-51%) for those whose parents had quit smoking, compared with those whose parents were current smokers. Asking to sit in nonsmoking sections of public establishments was a significant (p<.01) mediator that explained 64% of the association between parental smoking cessation and children's smoking. However, not allowing smoking in the home and asking others not to smoke around them were not significant mediators (p = .10, and p = .06, respectively). In conclusion, asking to sit in a nonsmoking section of a public establishment substantially mediates the relationship between parental smoking cessation and children's smoking.

Parent and Child Cigarette Use: A Longitudinal, Multigenerational Study

“…Interestingly, children of both parents who were late-onset persistent smokers (ie, they had a low probability of smoking in their teenage years that increased in adulthood) or who had a history of light smoking in adolescence that declined in adulthood (ie, the early-onset light smokers who quit/ reduced) had a significantly higher risk of smoking than children of parents who did not smoke in adolescence or adulthood. Although smoking as a teenager does not predetermine that one' s adolescent children will smoke, [22][23][24][25][26] our longitudinal trajectories reveal that parental smoking at any age (even before the child is born) increases the chances that their children will smoke. Intervention efforts to heighten parental disapproval of smoking and weaken possible intergenerational influences [45][46][47][48][49][50] should target parents who were smokers at any point from adolescence to adulthood.…”

“…[18][19][20][21] An advantage of such studies is the ability to model changes in parental smoking prospectively, providing evidence that parental smoking cessation is associated with lower use and cessation among adolescents. [22][23][24][25][26] Despite these advantages, few studies within the United States have used prospective parental data that was not exclusively concurrent with the adolescent data. 19,21 In one of the most detailed studies to date using 8 waves of data, Chassin et al 19 show that various parental smoking trajectories, beginning in adolescence, influenced whether their subsequently surveyed children had ever smoked.…”

Associations between parental smoking restrictions and adolescent smoking

“…These multi-level restriction investigations found that more restrictive home smoking policies were associated with a lower likelihood of trying smoking (Proescholdbell, Chassin, & MacKinnon, 2000), and reduced prevalence of current smoking among high school students (Farkas, Gilpin, White, & Pierce, 2000;Wakefield et al, 2000). Similarly, the results of other studies indicate that parental smoking restrictions were associated with reduced prevalence of daily smoking among 12th graders (Andersen et al, 2004;Bricker et al, 2005), and less smoking experimentation among elementary and middle school students (Henriksen & Jackson, 1998;Jackson & Henriksen, 1997). These findings were generally limited to nonsmoking families, with the exception of two studies that reported significant effects for parental smoking restrictions in both smoking and nonsmoking families (Bricker et al, 2005;Wakefield et al, 2000).…”

“…Indeed, parental smoking has been shown in numerous studies to be a significant correlate of child smoking (Bricker et al, 2003;Bricker, Leroux, Robyn Andersen, Rajan, & Peterson, 2005;Chassin, Presson, Rose, Sherman, & Prost, 2002;Farkas, Distefan, Choi, Gilpin, & Pierce, 1999;Flay, Hu, & Richardson, 1998;Griffin, Botvin, Doyle, Diaz, & Epstein, 1999;Jackson & Henriksen, 1997;Murray, Kiryluk, & Swan, 1985;Patton et al, 1998). Far less attention, however, has been given to other mechanisms by which parents may influence their children's tobacco smoking.…”

“…Smoking-specific parenting practices that are related to reduced smoking prevalence among adolescents include: expressed attitudes toward smoking (Andersen et al, 2002;Murray et al, 1985), discussion of smoking (Chassin et al, 2005;Chassin et al, 1998;Jackson & Henriksen, 1997), disapproval of smoking (Sargent & Dalton, 2001), punishment for smoking (Chassin et al, 1998;Jackson & Henriksen, 1997), and engaging in antismoking behaviors, such as asking to sit in nonsmoking sections in public establishments and asking smokers not to smoke in their presence (Andersen, Leroux, Bricker, Rajan, & Peterson, 2004;Bricker et al, 2005). The current study focuses on one smoking-specific parenting practice: the degree to which parents or legal guardians restrict adolescent cigarette smoking.…”